{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,14]],"date-time":"2025-10-14T00:32:52Z","timestamp":1760401972835,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":18,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,18]],"date-time":"2020-01-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1579305600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Future Internet"],"abstract":"<jats:p>According to altitude, the orbits of satellites constellations can be divided into geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), medium Earth orbit (MEO), and low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations. We propose to use a Walker star constellation with polar orbits, at any altitude, to emulate the geostationary orbit with zenith paths at any latitude. Any transmitter\/receiver will be linked to a satellite as if the site were at the equator and the satellite at the local zenith. This constellation design can have most of the advantages of the current GEO, MEO, and LEO constellations, without having most of their drawbacks. Doppler phenomena are largely minimized because the connected satellite is always seen almost at the local zenith. The extra free-space loss, due to the fixed pointing of all antennas, is at most 6 dBs when the satellite enters or leaves the service area. The connections among satellites are easy because the positions in the orbital plane and in adjacent planes are constant, although with variable distances. No steering antennas are required. The tropospheric propagation fading and scintillations are minimized. Our aim is to put forth the theoretical ideas about this design, to which we refer to as the geostationary surface (GeoSurf) constellation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/fi12010016","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,20]],"date-time":"2020-01-20T04:27:09Z","timestamp":1579494429000},"page":"16","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["Geocentric Spherical Surfaces Emulating the Geostationary Orbit at Any Latitude with Zenith Links"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6506-4238","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Emilio","family":"Matricciani","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria (DEIB), Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32, 20133 Milan, Italy"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"55","DOI":"10.1109\/MWC.2019.1800299","article-title":"Broadband LEO Satellite Communications: Architectures and Key Technologies","volume":"26","author":"Su","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Wirel. Commun."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"18391","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2017.2735988","article-title":"LEO Satellite Constellation for Internet of Things","volume":"5","author":"Qu","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"28","DOI":"10.1109\/98.930094","article-title":"Evaluation of TCP and Internet Traffic via Low Earth Orbit Satellites","volume":"8","author":"Chotikapong","year":"2001","journal-title":"IEEE Pers. Commun."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"62","DOI":"10.1109\/MWC.2019.1800301","article-title":"Ultra-Dense LEO: Integration of Satellite Access Networks into 5G and Beyond","volume":"26","author":"Di","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Wirel. Commun."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"503","DOI":"10.1002\/sat.1171","article-title":"Eutelsat HTS systems","volume":"34","author":"Fenech","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int. J. Satell. Commun. Netw."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"483","DOI":"10.1002\/sat.1161","article-title":"Ka band enabling technologies for high throughput satellite (HTS) communications","volume":"34","author":"Hasan","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int. J. Satell. Commun. Netw."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"547","DOI":"10.1002\/sat.1160","article-title":"Performance, cost analysis, and ground segment design of ultra high throughput multi-spot beam satellite networks applying different capacity enhancing techniques","volume":"34","author":"Katona","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int. J. Satell. Commun. Netw."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"523","DOI":"10.1002\/sat.1175","article-title":"Architectures for next generation high throughput satellite systems","volume":"34","author":"Vasavada","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int. J. Satell. Commun. Netw."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"138","DOI":"10.1109\/4234.996035","article-title":"An Analytical Model to Predict the Probability Density Function of Elevation Angles for LEO Satellite Systems","volume":"6","author":"Li","year":"2002","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Lett."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"809","DOI":"10.1002\/sat.1134","article-title":"Space communications with variable elevation angle faded by rain: Radio links to the Sun\u2013Earth first Lagrangian point L1","volume":"34","author":"Matricciani","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int. J. Satell. Commun. Netw."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Matricciani, E., and Riera, J.M. (2016, January 17\u201320). Variable elevation\u2013angle radio links faded by rain at Ka Band from Madrid to the Sun\u2013Earth Lagrangian point L1. Proceedings of the 22th Ka and Broadband Communications Conference, Cleveland, OH, USA."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Walker, J.G. (1977). 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